What I often recommend to parents of children who learn two spoken languages...
who also struggle with the question ‘How are we going to boost how much language input our child gets?’, is to look for other families where that language is spoken
or where sign language is used. Or to look for any other sources that you can find, like children’s films or TV programs or that kind of thing.
And whatever you can find, try to make as much use of it as possible. I also know clubs where parents...
who are Italian-Dutch or English-Dutch,come together. This is also a way to...
not only offer more language, but also to exchange experiences and tips and tricks.
That can be very helpful and comforting to you as a parent.
-So clubs of parents who are in similar situations who look for each other and exchange tips?
-Yes. In these situations, it’s about offering sign language to a child. And I can imagine that you might look for ...
who use sign language with their children. Because they offer sign language to their child the same way as you offer spoken Dutch to your child.
Of course you can’t just make friends with someone, simply because of their deafness...
but that’s a way in which you might be able to access more language in a creative way.
Reading to your child is also very important. So there are many studies that show that reading to children...
improves their language development. And they perform better later in school, too. So being read to is a very good predictor of success at school.
So like that...
I also think that offering a rich language environment is important. So for example, naming the things you see.
When I have my day at home with the kids, I always tend to do the same kind of activities.
We might bake or do some crafting. And once you include all the domestic stuff in between, the day is soon gone.
But I always give the advice to try to do something different, because then your child will hear different words.
And that’s a way of offering your child a rich language environment in an unconscious way.